Best exam tips / techniques you\'ve learnt which will help others…

Hi all,

I past my last exam last December, and I’ve been thinking how much I was stressing last year and how relieved I am this year. But I was also thinking about the best exam techniques I was taught during my FTC lectures, and how much it really helped in my exam. So I thought if everyone shared their best tips it may help.

The one piece of advice that REALLY helped my with the written papers is this…

P.E.R.M

Point – Explain – Relate – Move on

Point: If you write the word that explains what you are about to write about (ie. Familiarity). You can even underline it so the marker knows what point you want to make.

Explain: Just a quick one or two line definition of your point (ie. This is a threat which is caused by the accountant / auditor having worked on a job for such a period that they are unable to spot new problems that may be encountered in a changing environment).

Relate: A little description of why this is relevant to the question – because that’s where most of the marks are. (ie. The audit partner has not been changed in a number of years. This may cause a threat as…. I don’t know, I don’t have a question… but they’ll be something to relate to)

Move on: Once you have made your Point – and got half a mark, Explained it – and got another half a mark, and Related it to the scenario – and got 2 marks, there is nothing else to get out of writing more. Move on and pick up some more easy marks.

What exam tips does anyone else use?